...and the sunlight pierced my heart

vln, pno
Duration: 6:00
Date of Composition: 1981

PROGRAM NOTES:

…and the sunlight pierce my heart was composed in 1981 as a recital piece for violinist Thomas Halpin.  The title comes from a speech made by the Apache Indian Cochise at a council conducted by General George Grange in September of 1866.  Ironically, a paraphrase of Cochise’s statement was written by a Jewish prisoner at Treblinka some 80 years later.  The music is in no way programmatic but illustrates the hope of sunlight in the concluding tonal section when the violin reaches a high A of utmost poignancy.

James Sellars

Hartford, Connecticut, 1981

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